International cooperations

Faunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation CMI

The Faunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation CMI cooperates closely with the Fraunhofer IPT in many areas. In collaboration with Boston University, the Fraunhofer CMI conducts advanced research and development leading to engineering solutions for a broad range of industries, including biotech/biomedical, photonics, and renewable energies.

Engineers, faculty partners and students at the CMI transfer the results of basic research into advanced technologies that meet needs of both domestic and global client companies. The primary focus is on the development of innovative high-precision automation systems, instruments and medical devices.

This partnership allows the Fraunhofer IPT and CMI to provide their clients with production technology research and development services close to their production facilities, while also creating the conditions for a sustainable technology transfer between European and American manufacturers. The CMI works closely together with Boston Uni­versity and its office on the BU campus is built right next to the University’s Manufacturing Engineering Department. The training of highly qualified engineers in an international environment is also something they care about very deeply.

The project centre for the joint research platform will be established by a large consortium that features two large Swedish manufacturing corporations, the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and the RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden), and the Fraunhofer IPT, IWU and ITWM. In a “Memorandum of Understanding“ from March 2015, the partners expressed their wish to perform joint research and development activities on a “Powertrain Manufacturing for Heavy Vehicles Application Lab“ with the objective of establishing a common innovation cluster.

Centre for Embedded Bioanalytical Solutions“ in Ireland

In close cooperation with Dublin City University, the Fraunhofer IPT is currently establishing the “Centre for Embedded Bioanalytical Solutions“ in Ireland, an innovative one-stop point of call for contract research into microfluidic systems in bioanalytics. The joint venture will mainly focus on the so-called lab-on-a-chip systems that are made from plastics. The Irish partners contribute their expertise in design and technical specifications of applications in medical technology, environmental technology and the food industry, while the Fraunhofer IPT provides its production technology know-how. The Fraunhofer CMI will also be integrated into the projects.

“Design and Production Engineering in Complex High Tech Systems“ in the Netherlands

The Fraunhofer IPT intends to take its cooperation with the University of Twente in the area of “Design and Production Engineering in Complex High-Tech Systems“ to a new level. On 24 August 2015 (during the CIRP conference), Professor Reimund Neugebauer and Professor Fritz Klocke signed a “Memorandum of Understanding“ with Victor van der Chijs and Prof. Fred van Houten from the Dutch University, in which both partner organizations express their wish to cooperate more closely in the future. The University of Twente was already one of 18 Fraunhofer IPT partners in the EU project “FibreChain“. Both organizations are also working together under the “ambliFibre“ project of the EU.